This document describes the general use and additional information about the Distributed Temperature
Sensing (DTS) data files from Shasta Reservoir, California. Please read the following information for best
use and understanding of the data.
FIELD SET UP:
A DTS system was installed at Shasta Reservoir on August, 19th 2015 in order to capture a vertical
temperature profile of the reservoir just upstream of Shasta Dam. A cross section of the setup is seen
below, with the DTS cable shown in red:
The cable is fastened to a buoy located approximately 170 meters (560 feet) from the dam. The buoy
floats on the water surface, which fluctuates with the seasons. The cable therefore does not reach the
reservoir bottom, and fluctuates up and down with the reservoir surface. Please see
http://cdec.water.ca.gov/ for Shasta Reservoir water surface elevations throughout the year.
FILE FORMAT: See next page for specific notes about the data.
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The files are posted as comma-separated value files which contain temperature at a specific date
and time at a specific depth below the reservoir water surface.
Row 1 is the date-time stamp. Data are collected every 15 minutes. The data are in Pacific Daylight
Time (7 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time); users will have to convert data to Pacific
Standard Time or other time zones as needed.
Column 1 is the depth below the water surface. A value of zero corresponds to the reservoir water
surface elevation. Depth is measured in meters.
All other values represent the water temperature at the specific date-time and depth value.
Temperature is in degrees Celsius. The temperature data are calibrated to two independent
temperature probes located in an ambient temperature water bath. This calibration is done internally by
the DTS instrument. No additional calibration has been performed on the data.
For more information about DTS technology, please see the Center for Transformative Environmental
Monitoring Programs at ctemps.org.
Please contact either Rachel Hallnan (rhallnan@nevada.unr.edu) or Laurel Saito (lsaito@cabnr.unr.edu)
with questions or data visualization needs.
DATA NOTES:
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Data collected between March 17th 2016 and May 1st 2016 experienced a physical issue with the
cable path. The bottom of the cable was caught on an object near the surface during this time.
Therefore the cable dropped from the surface to mid depth, and then rose back up again. Data
collected during this period show this pattern, and do not represent the vertical period. The issue
was resolved on May 1st and data after this point resume the vertical profile displayed above.
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Due to a power outage, no data were collected between mid-day on May 17th and May 23rd.